Criminal Justice News

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Arizona Man Sentenced to More Than 15 Years in Prison in Money Laundering and Tax Scheme

Gino Carlucci was sentenced to 188 months in prison for his role in conspiracies to commit money laundering and to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and for filing a false income tax return, the Justice Department and the IRS announced today. On July 25, 2011, a federal jury in Phoenix convicted Carlucci of both conspiracies and the tax crime after an eight-day trial.

According to the evidence presented at trial, Carlucci and his co-defendant, Wayne Mounts, stole large sums of money and assets from Joseph Flickinger, a tax return preparer in Ohio who had himself defrauded multiple clients of their life savings in a fraudulent investment scheme. Flickinger pleaded guilty to federal charges in a separate case and was sentenced to 70 months in prison. After defrauding Flickinger of the money, Carlucci and Mounts devised a scheme to have Flickinger arrested by federal officials, and then used the money for their own personal benefit. In addition to money, Carlucci and Mounts defrauded Flickinger out of several high-end vehicles and a condo near Lake Erie, Ohio, which they quickly sold for $210,000. Carlucci had some of the funds transferred into bank accounts held in the name of his wife and father-in-law. Carlucci’s wife and Mounts withdrew more than $300,000 in cash over several months in increments of $10,000 or less so that they could avoid having the bank report their withdrawals to authorities. Carlucci and Mounts spent an additional $150,000 of the funds to buy a 43-foot luxury boat whose existence Carlucci concealed from the government for over two years.

“This sentence demonstrates that those who would hide assets and income from the IRS using phony identifications and bogus documents, all for the purpose of enriching themselves, will be properly punished for their crimes,” said Kathryn Keneally, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

“Today, Mr. Carlucci was held accountable for his criminal behavior,” said Richard Weber, Chief IRS Criminal Investigation. “He's nothing more than a con man motivated by greed. His sentencing is a victory for honest taxpaying citizens.”

Chief Judge Kathryn H. Vratil of the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas, sitting in Phoenix by special designation, ordered Carlucci to pay $893,716 in restitution to the victims in Flickinger’s case and to the IRS.Judge Vratil further entered a forfeiture order against Carlucci for a money judgment in the amount of $722,841.00. Before trial, the government seized over $155,000 of the funds from Carlucci and Mounts, as well as a new truck Carlucci bought with the funds and the 43 foot boat. Carlucci was detained pending sentencing following the guilty verdict in July 2011. After trial, the government seized many of his remaining assets that he was hiding, including another 39 foot boat, a Chevrolet truck, two Sea Doo personal watercraft vehicles, trailers, three all-terrain vehicles and two vitamin encapsulation machines that he used for one of his businesses. Mounts was sentenced in January 2012 to 63 months in prison.

Assistant Attorney General Keneally commended the joint efforts from the special agents from IRS Criminal Investigation in Ohio and Arizona who investigated the case as well as Tax Division Trial Attorneys Richard Rolwing, Hayden Brockett, and Monica Edelstein, who prosecuted the case. Assistant Attorney General Keneally also thanked the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona for their assistance in this matter.

Additional information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division and its enforcement efforts is available at USdoj.gov/tax/.